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03 March 2021
Check out our newly created page on
Knowledge Sharing, where the Eastern and
Southern African Division has compiled a compendium on good practices for Gender Equality
within their programs.
It is a source of inspiration for your programs, and to come forth with your best practices
and learning on how to achieve Gender Equality! Enjoy!
16 December 2020
From December 1st - 3rd 2020 an online workshop took place on Gender Equality and
Social Inclusion
(see
here for the summary in a nutshell). $
The poverty and well being shareweb has uploaded all the presentation, key insights
and documents onto their shareweb. Find out more
here.
15 December 2020
As so many contributions reached us on gender and migration, we are happy to share with you a
second newsletter on the topic.
Wishing you all a nice rest of 2020 and a good start into 2021. May the new year bring some
light and relief after these eventful times. Find more in the
online dossier on gender and
migration.
15 December 2020
Power relations, gender norms and unequal rights shape the migration choices and experiences
of women and men. Gender therefore needs to be considered in all aspects of our work related
to migration and forced displacement.
To shed some light on the topic, the SDC Network on Migration and Gender decided to launch a
call for contribution on gender, migration and forced displacement. Numerous articles and
resources have reached us demonstrating the vivid interest of network members and friends in
the issue.
Enjoy the reading of the first (out of two) newsletters and the online dossier on migration
and gender
here.
12 November 2020
Beijing +25: A milestone for women’s rights
2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the UN’s landmark Fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing, at which governments from around the world pledged to advance
women’s rights and work towards full gender equality.
In this podcast, Gender & Development’s assistant
editor Liz Cooke is joined by four women’s rights activists who have written for the
journal’s Beijing +25 issue. Together, they assess the impact of the Beijing
conference for women’s rights over the last 25 years, the role of the UN in
supporting women’s struggles for equality and the likely consequences of the
COVID-19 pandemic for women’s rights.
12 November 2020
Violence against women and girls is prevalent worldwide – and the thematic spotlight of this
“New Digest”. The COVID-19 crisis in particular has made this clear once again (see the
above publications). Violence against women is prevalent in all spheres of life. Please find
below publications about violence in economic, political and virtual life: Employees, particularly women, are disproportionately affected by violence and harassment at
work, where unequal power relations, low pay, precarious working conditions and other
workplace abuses expose them to violence. The International Labour Organization published
two reports about violence against women in the work world. They first published the report
“Ending
violence and harassment against women and men in the world of work”
with a focus on understanding and the prevalence of violence in paid economy. They then
released the report “Violence
and harassment against women and men in the world of work-trade”. This
publication provides a wealth of evidence showing how trade unions can contribute to making
real and positive changes in the workplace to protect workers, and especially women, from
violence. Women also face violence in the political sphere: the UN Women report “Violence
against women in politics” from 2018 and the report “Data
and violence against women in politics: Expert group meeting report and
recommendations” show this clearly. Both reports indicate specific
points and in which situations women face violence. The reports also make clear
recommendations to reduce violence in the political sphere. Violence prevention is crucial and can reduce intimate partner violence. The publication “Innovating
to address gender-based violence” from the International Development
Innovation Alliance discusses this action point. This publication includes a collection of
innovative practices to effectively tackle gender-based violence. It thus serves as a call
to action to further develop and scale innovative solutions to address the root causes of
gender inequality.
12 November 2020
To increase its contribution to gender equality in Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya),
SDC conducted a Gender Evaluation of its whole Cooperation Strategy. Each priority Domain -
Food Security, Health, Governance and Migration/Protection- was analyzed through 3
dimensions: i) the evidence based gender diagnostics for programing (gender analysis), ii)
the gender integration in the results framework (indicators), and iii) the gender results
achieved. Each Domain has been positioned along the Gender Effectiveness Score, from being
gender neutral to gender sensitive, positive and/or gender transformative to assess the
scale and nature of the changes obtained and to fix the ambitions. Transversal
recommendations for the Management and operational recommendations per Domain were
formulated; a follow up action plan was produced to guarantee concrete actions and
improvements towards gender equality in the future Cooperation Program. An interesting
experience to be shared and adapted by other SDC’s country offices! See details in thelink
and here.
12 November 2020
The Gender Learning Day of 2020 was hosted by the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation (SDC) and co-organised by the two backstopping partners HELVETAS and
Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (ICFG). Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, this
year’s event took place online for the first time. The event gathered the SDC’s GenderNet
members and gender experts as well as the team member responsible for gender-related issues
from Swiss NGOs and the SDC’s partners in Switzerland but this time also from abroad. The
main focus of the event was on lessons learned and good practices for strengthening and
supporting women’s political leadership in local and national political institutions and
processes. Find a complete reporting on this conference here.
SDC Community of Practice on SGBVThe SDC Gender Focal Point of the Humanitarian Aid Department, in collaboration with the
Gender Unit has initiated a community of practice on Sexual and Gender Based Violence. The
objectives are to 1) share information about global discussions, new research, new tools; 2)
document good practices and reflect on potentials and challenges of certain types of
interventions through exchange of experience; 3) develop a common SDC approach to working on
SGBV. A kick off session with 25 participants was held on 26th of August 2020, when the key
learnings of the SDC capitalization on SGBV (2017) were recalled and the global SGBV
architecture as well as ongoing initiatives and commitments in humanitarian aid were
explained. The session was setting the ground for a series of other virtual meetings during
2020/2021 dedicated to particular SGBV topics, approaches. The last session took place on
November 11th and focused on ways of engaging with men and boys.
28 October 2020
The Gender Focal Point commissioned a feasibility study on roots of impact at the end of 2019
to find out to what extent existing FinTechs are gender inclusive or how they could be
persuaded to target more women, and what these enterprises themselves need in order to
provide products and services for women. The study presents, among other things, 4 different FinTechs, and how these FinTechs can
achieve transformative results in the area of financial inclusion of women and how these
FinTechs can benefit from an Impact-linked Finance Fund to reach more women and scale their
solutions. Check out the study.
07 July 2020
The SDC
Shomoshti project aims to
provide support to the poor, disadvantaged households and to marginalized women by creating
windows for better livelihood opportunities. By ensuring higher incomes and better market
access in the targeted areas, Shomoshti project envisions to impact the wellbeing of 180,000
rural households in fourteen districts. With regard to women’s economic empowerment, the
project addresses the issues of women’s agency, gender roles / relations and enabling
structures, through engagement with various micro-, meso- and macro-level actors.
The study was undertaken with the objectives- (i) to assess the effectiveness and impact of
the project interventions in relation to gender focus areas (decision making, control on
income, mobility, distribution of household roles (ii) review the existing gender strategy
in relation to scope for scale and sustainability and engagement of the private sector and
(iii) to define interventions that the project can undertake The findings reveal promising positive change and yet persisting limitations. For example,
women are able to generate income and increase the total household income, but this does not
necessarily enhance their own spending ability. Findings also show that the private sector
is not yet clear about the business case of engaging women traders or producers and female
local service providers. This clearly indicates the need to further deepen the engagement
with multiple stakeholders. The study provides several recommendations for the way forward.
This might serve as a source of inspiration!
07 July 2020
In this news digest, the thematic spotlight focuses on the topic of women’s economic
empowerment and women’s leadership.. Achieving gender diversity in enterprises is of
critical importance for improving business outcomes. Recently, the International Labour
Organzation (ILO) has taken up this topic and released various reports on women in business
and management at a global and regional level. The second ILO global report “Women in Business and
Management” offers new insights into women’s representation in business
and management, including at board level, showing how gender diversity at the top improves
organisational performance. The report provides insights into the topics of a
gender-balanced workforce and a gender-inclusive culture, emphasising the need for more
women in decision-making positions.
Furthermore, through several
regional
reports (e.g. on Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and
North Africa, and Asia and the Pacific), the ILO contributes to the topic of women in
business and management at a national and regional level. These reports offer in-depth
information on women’s participation in the labour market and bring to the table topics such
as women’s leadership (in Asia and the Pacific), education, and the negative effects of
crime and violence on women’s entrepreneurship (in Central America).
Additionally, the ILO focuses on inequality between women and men in the labour market. In
the 2020 report “Understanding the Gender Pay
Gap”, the ILO estimates the gender pay gap on a national level,
especially for women and men in management positions. The gender pay gap has been reduced in
some countries, while in others there has been little change. The report discusses the
causes of the gender pay gap and shows the benefits of closing the gap. Finally, it offers
recommendations on how the tackle the gender pay gap in enterprises.
The short article “How to Support More Women in
Leadership Roles” from the World Economic Forum (2020) aims in the same
direction. The article shows that gender-diverse teams have better long-term performance. A
smart graph shows the percentage of women in companies’ boards of directors in different
geographical regions and countries. The article recommends closing the women’s leadership
gap through top-down commitments to gender equality, skills training and family-friendly
policies.
02 July 2020
Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian
writer. In 2015, Adichie was listed among Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential
People”, and she has won several writer awards. In 2012, Adichie held a TEDx talk in
London with the title “We Should All Be
Feminists”, which has been viewed more than four million times.
“We Should All Be Feminists” analyses what it means to be a feminist and includes
personal anecdotes She tells stories from her childhood in Nigeria, like when she
didn’t become a class monitor in primary school because of her gender. She calls
herself as a happy, African feminist and she talks about feminism, love and home
Adichie talks about how to learn gender role expectations and how to learn to break
them. Above all, in her stories lies the bright glimmer of a better, more tolerant
world. Adichie is a wide-awake observer of our times, and her stories are a literary
revelation.
24 June 2020
Please watch the
video on the last FDFA Gender
Network Meeting, focusing on the topic COVID-19, gender equality and foreign policy: which
challenges can we expect? You can find the assessment and personal remarks by the SDC
Director General Patricia Danzi, and the presentation on UN Women’s approach by Christine
Löw, the Director of UN Women Liaison Office in Geneva. Further, you can listen to concrete
experiences with the pandemic and ways of responding from the offices in Bosnia &
Herzegovina and Jordan.
23 June 2020
Gender Equality is well integrated in Switzerland’s future strategy of international
development and cooperation (2021-2024). It is part of the overall objective 4, ‘Promoting
peace, the rule of law and gender equality (peacebuilding and governance)’, and closely
related with the other respective sub-topics, such as Fragility, Conflict and Human Rights,
Democratisation, Decentralisation, Local Governance and Poverty/Leaving no one behind. They
represent in their entirety the thematic cluster Peace-Governance-Equality (PGE), a joint
effort of the involved 4 thematic units to promote integrated approaches and to strengthen
synergies. The ARI / TRI within the PGE cluster complement each other and they add to
enhance Gender Equality. Gender Equality is explicitly represented in the Sub-Objective 9, ‘Strengthening &
Promoting Human Rights and Gender Equality’. The Gender ARI / TRI focus on the SDC strategic
priorities Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), Women’s Political Participation and
Empowerment (WPE), and they include aspects of a conducive environment for gender
transformative change, such as policy reforms and gender responsive budgeting, reduction of
unpaid domestic and care work and supportive behavior by family members. The strategic
priorities of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Women’s Economic
Empowerment (WEE) are measured by gender specific ARI / TRI within the health related
indicators and those on inclusive economic development. Further, Gender Equality remains a
mandatory transversal theme and is supported by sex disaggregated data in almost all other
sub-objectives. For example, in relation to WEE this includes sex disaggregated data on
access to vocational skills training and better employment, on access to and use of
financial products, on secure land tenure rights and increased income.
This PowerPoint presentation gives
you a visualized overview of the Gender ARI / TRI and above mentioned interlinkages.
The list with all ARI and TRI for the entire range of sub-objectives you can find in
the SDC guidance on results
indicators.
03 June 2020
For the third time, the SDC publishes its Status Report on Gender Equality. The
report presents the efforts pursued by the SDC and its partners to promote gender
equality in 2019.
Find
the report here!
28 May 2020
For the third time, the SDC publishes its Status Report on Gender Equality. The report illuminates
how the SDC and its partners committed to make gender relations on the ground more
equal to the benefit of both women and men in 2019.
Go
read the report here!
27 March 2020
Please read
this
note by SDC on considering gender in COVID-19 response!
06 March 2020
According to the
"WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2020", the
greatest global gap remains in women’s political empowerment (WEP) sub-index, with worrying
regressive trends affecting women’s economic participation and opportunity. Although women’s
representation in parliaments and executive positions has seen some progress, the overall
figures are still low, and even lower when it comes to female representation in leading
positions. Furthermore, their political agency is often limited.
These findings are compounded by other disconcerting trends. Many recent studies report an
increase in inequality, fragility and declining civic space and media liberty. Where
democracy is in decline, we observe the emergence of authoritarian tendencies and impunity,
often coupled with a rise in conservatism and a patriarchal backlash. These trends
negatively impact women, youth and marginalized minority groups, coinciding with different
forms of violence against these groups and a marked regression in women’s economic and
political empowerment. Research and practice indicate so far that when women are better represented, decisions tend
to benefit a broader spectrum of society, contributing to more inclusion, cohesion, equity
and security. However, what are the conditions enabling or disabling a woman from meaningful
participation, representation and decision making in public bodies, be it at communal or
national level? With a capitalization of its experiences (CapEx), SDC wishes to explore this question and to
help bridging the information gap related so as to better understand and address WEP in the
different contexts and programs it operates in globally. The main purpose is to share
lessons learned and good practices based on cumulative SDC experiences to date in
strengthening and supporting WEP and gender-responsive approaches in local and national
governance and peace and state building processes. The CapEx is mandated by the Gender Unit at SDC HQ and will be done in collaboration with you
and our partners.
04 February 2020
Read
here about the 2020 Annual Plan of SDC's Peace, Governance &
Equality-Cluster and the Gender Unit and Network.
05 November 2019
The revision of many Cooperation Programmes (previously called Cooperation Strategies) is on
the agenda for the next two years. To increase effectiveness and sustainability of a
Cooperation Programme and its interventions, gender issues have to be considered from the
onset. Seeing the negative trend in SDC's commitments for either gender-principal or
significant interventions according to the newest Gender Policy Marker data, the systematic
integration of gender during the drafting process of a new Cooperation Programme is a key
moment to ensure a gender-transformative project portfolio. Has your Cooperation Office already started to discuss relevant gender issues for the new
Programme? Do you wonder how to integrate the gender perspective and when to start with
preparation work? The
SDC
How-to-Note “Integrating SDC’s Gender Policy into Cooperation Strategy Management” and
further documents provide information about relevant gender topics and the process
of gender mainstreaming in Cooperation Programmes. Do you still have questions or need
guidance? Do not hesitate to get in touch with the SDC Gender Focal Points.
29 October 2019
Have fun with Selina Haeny's most favorite cartoon!
25 October 2019
From 27 April to May 1st 2020, the regional meeting on
"Gender and the Psychosocial Approach within Conflict Sensitive Programme
Management (CSPM)" will take place in Bogotá, Colombia.
The workshop is organised by the Cooperation Office in Colombia, the Latin America and
Caribbean Division at SDC HQ, the Conflict and Human Rights Thematic Network and the Gender
Thematic Network with the aim of defining a common conceptual basis for understanding and
applying the gender perspective and the psychosocial approach in the context of CSPM. The seminar will give insights on how the gender perspective and the psychosocial approach
can help navigate programmes and projects in contexts of high degrees of polarisation,
violence and social crises. The workshop is an opportunity to exchange information on
methodological and operational processes. Experiences of different organizations, social
movements and scientific institutions in different Latin American countries will be
presented in order to promote mutual learning. The workshop has two parts: the first two days are dedicated to gender as a transversal theme
as well as to CSPM. The remaining three days will discuss the psychosocial approach in
development processes. While the first part of the meeting is open mainly to the SDC's
Gender Focal Points in the region as well as to the partners of the Cooperation Office in
Colombia, the second part will be open to other interested parties.
07 October 2019
This year, the Gender Learning Day 2019 was held as a conference on the topic Women, Peace
and Security: Reclaim Prevention! You can find a full reporting on the successful conference
here.
27 September 2019
The How to Note's on Gender Analysis and PCM are also available in French and
Spanish!
Share among your multilingual colleagues!
PCM
Gender
Analysis
17 September 2019
Are you preparing your annual reports for this year in your cooperation offices? Get some
inspiration from
this
best practice in Niger: visibility, candid discussion on challenges and results of
your programmes achievements in gender equality!
More on Annual Reports and Gender:
here.
Préparez-vous vos rapports annuels pour cette année dans vos bureaux de coopération ?
Inspirez-vous de cette
bonne pratique au Niger : visibilité, discussion franche sur les défis et les
résultats de vos programmes en matière d'égalité des genres!
16 July 2019
In a bid to address the continued decline of female representation in politics in Mongolia,
more than 400 people from throughout the country gathered at a Women Leaders’ Forum in June
to discuss the challenges and ways ahead.
More...
16 July 2019
Through the "Combating Gender-Based Violence in Mongolia" Project of UNFPA, the
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the Mongolian Government, seven new One
Stop Service Centers (OSSCs) have been opened in five provinces - Khuvsgul, Bayan-Ulgii,
Darkhan-Uul, Khentii, and Dornod - as well as two districts of Ulaanbaatar - Khan-Uul and
Bayanzurkh - within the last year.
More...
04 June 2019
Through the "Gender Corner", SDC Mongolia is sharing examples of gender equality
activities in each domain of SDC’s programmes in Mongolia. Stories are presented from
project beneficiaries to highlight how SDC's projects contribute to gender
equality. Explore
the corner and its stories, to get some inspiration for your work!
30 April 2019
This
report presents Switzerland’s contribution in 2018 to achieve gender equality
through its international cooperation. The presented project cases show the diverse topics
and approaches that the SDC and its partners work on to tackle the manifold gender gaps.
They illustrate what progress has been achieved, what changes have been induced and what
obstacles women and men continue to face. We aim for transformative changes towards more and
lasting gender equality. We wish you a good reading.
24 April 2019
24 April 2019
The Gender Equality Network and the Democratisation, Decentralisation and Local Governance
Network joined hands to publish this working paper on Socially and Gender Inclusive
Budgeting. Read more
here.
26 February 2019
Explore what is going on on International Women's Day at SDC
here!
Or enjoy the
Blog on FDFA website on women producing
chlorine for safe water!
27 December 2018
Learn everything on how to integrate gender and
Women's Economic Empowerment into Private Sector Development
Programmes and improve the outcome and impact of your programmes!
The
Donor Committee for Enterprise Development has developed this
useful document for you!
Access it now
here.
19 December 2018
Watch and share the results of the effectiveness report on Gender Equality in three
languages:
For the German Version click
here.
For the French Version click
here.
For the English Version click
here.
You prefer to read? You find your preferred langauge versions on the above links
too.
06 December 2018
Find everything on the Gender Policy Marker
here.
28 November 2018
From 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to
10 December, the Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism against
Gender-Based Violence Campaign is a time to galvanize action to end
violence against women and girls around the world.
Find more information on the campaign
here.
08 November 2018
Find all the presentations and resources from the Savings and Credit Forum on Women's
Financial Inclusion: How to reach one billion women? online
here.
04 October 2018
In 2007, Switzerland adopted its first National Action Plan on
Women, Peace and Security (NAP 1325). Since then, Switzerland has passed three national
action plans. The fourth version of NAP 1325 shows Switzerland’s continuous engagement
to promote gender equality in the context of peace and security.
You can find the fourth version on our FDFA Gender Strategy Page
here.
31 July 2018
The
Swiss Development Cooperation has published its regular report on effectiveness
in the field of gender equality 2007-2016. Gain insights into our programmes and
projects around gender equality, and learn about their degree of effectiveness.
You can download the report
here or
watch the summary of the mainpoints
here.
17 April 2018
17 April 2018
17 April 2018
13 April 2018
13 April 2018
13 April 2018
13 April 2018
13 April 2018
13 April 2018
11 April 2018
07 April 2018
06 March 2018
26 January 2018
This
manual
on gender and economics is intended to provide basic and intermediate level
training to development practitioners including governments and policy and programme
staff in international development agencies.
18 January 2018
New
Fact Sheet highlights the importance of CEDAW for SDC ́s
work on gender equality and for its human rights-based approach toward poverty
reduction.
18 January 2018
The
'How-to'
note on gender analysis provides a practical guide for conducting a
gender analysis. It aims at SDC operational staff and SDC partners in
Switzerland and in partner countries.
The
'How
to’ guide on PCM focuses on mainstreaming gender in the program or
project cycle management.
15 November 2017
18 October 2017
21 September 2017
The
thematic guidance
sheets are part of a series written to support SDC staff in ensuring that gender issues
are taken into account transversally in different thematic domains.
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